Denmark is once again the happiest country in the world

The UN has published the 2016 edition of its World Happiness Report, which reveals that, contrary to the popular notion that cold climates lead to unhappiness, Denmark is once again the world's happiest nation.

Denmark is closely followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland. The US comes in 13th place, while the UK is the 23rd happiest nation in the world, just behind Singapore and just ahead of Chile.

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Globally speaking, happiness is lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa, which contributes eight of the ten lowest scoring countries in the index, including Rwanda, Benin and, in last place, Burundi. War-torn Syria and Afghanistan respectively occupy position 156 and 154 out of 157 countries, for reasons that are both tragic and self-evident.

The report's authors provide evidence that inequality plays a key role in how happy a country's population is. Specifically, they looked at equality of happiness -- how great a variation there was to be found in reported happiness among a nation's residents -- and found that those countries with the greatest equality of happiness also tended to be among the happiest in general.

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The report observes that "of the 20 most equal countries, seven also appear in the top 20 countries in terms of average happiness. Of the 20 least equal, none except for Puerto Rico are among the top twenty in happiness, and most are in the bottom half of the world distribution, except for a few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, where life evaluations and inequality are both higher than average."

However, of the most equal countries -- Bhutan, Comoros and the Netherlands -- only the Netherlands makes it into the happiness top twenty. The happiness of the Dutch is a trend shared by Western Europeans in general, and Western Europe, closely followed by Southeast Asia, is the region with the highest happiness equality overall.

The World Happiness Report was first published in 2012, with updates in 2013, 2014, and 2015, providing plenty of comparative data to show how countries' happiness has changed over time. Denmark came out top of the happiness charts in 2013 and 2014, but slipped to third place in last year's rankings.

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One of the most dramatic changes in happiness is in Greece, which has seen its happiness decrease along with its economic fortunes. Happiness in Italy and Spain have been similarly hard-hit by economic crises.

By comparison, Ireland and Iceland, which both suffered major economic upheaval in recent years, only suffered small happiness reductions as a result. The authors write that social support is a key factor under such circumstances, observing that "the percentage of people who report that they have someone to count on in times of crisis is exceptionally high in Iceland and Ireland."

Data for the World Happiness Report is gathered from the Gallup World Poll, which users a combination of telephone and face-to-face interviews in 160 countries around the world, with annually repeated questions that cover everything from personal well-being to education, employment and access to media.